In 1994, the Earthwatch Institute awarded Debbie a Dodge Teacher Fellowship to join the Coral Gardens of Tonga expedition and assist with research on coral reef health in the South Pacific. After six flights and twenty-four hours, Debbie arrived on the island of Vava’u, where she spent two weeks counting giant clams on the reefs around this island group. A peculiar turn of events (the plane for her return flight was repossessed for non-payment) landed her in Auckland, New Zealand, where she managed to see every tourist attraction within the city limits in one day.

Debbie spent the summer of 2001 in Barbados, volunteering on two consecutive Earthwatch teams. On the Hawksbill Sea Turtles of Barbados expedition, she patrolled nesting beaches, tagged and measured adult Hawksbill turtles, and pointed hatchlings in the direction of the water. She then joined the Damselfish of Barbados expedition, and spent each morning snorkeling a nearshore reef to monitor the egg production of the bi-colored damselfish. The damselfish is extremely territorial, and Debbie endured dozens of tiny fish bites in the name of science.

Her newfound romance with sea turtles brought Debbie to St. Croix in 2003, where she again joined Earthwatch scientists in the field. The Saving the Leatherback Turtle team patrolled Sandy Point National Wildlife Refuge, a critical nesting beach for the largest sea turtle species. Debbie became a skilled egg catcher, and discovered the slap of a Leatherback flipper can leave a nasty welt on your shin.

In 2004, Debbie was awarded her second Dodge Teacher Fellowship, and joined her fifth Earthwatch expedition, Conserving the Pantanal. She traveled to Mato Grasso do Sul, Brazil, to assist a team of scientists developing a conservation plan for the world’s largest wetlands. Somehow, the researchers convinced her it was safe to stand shoulder-deep in water full of piranha and caiman.

Most recently, Earthwatch awarded Debbie a Teen Team Facilitator position, and sent her off to the Caribbean with nine teen volunteers. Together, Debbie and the teens (dubbed "Team Turtle") tagged and microchipped Trinidad's Leatherback Sea Turtles, rescued stranded hatchlings, and avoided the deadly bushmaster vipers lurking in the forest.